Areas that may be difficult and/or hazardous for humans to access may need inspection from time to time. Such areas can include water pipes, sewer pipes, manufacturing plants, hazardous waste disposal areas, areas contaminated with hazardous substances, and/or other areas difficult to access and/or hazardous to humans. Robotic inspection systems can be helpful for inspecting such areas.
Robotic inspection systems can be autonomous and/or manually controlled (e.g., remote operated vehicles or ROVs). Some conventional robotic inspection systems may depend on a tether unspooling to measure distance traveled by the robot (e.g., the amount of tether that has been unwound approximates the distance traveled by the robot). However, these systems may be limited by the length of the tether and/or by the accuracy of the length of tether unwound accurately representing distance traveled.
Also, some conventional robotic inspection systems may rely on a single robot and may collect and store data in the robot for later download or retrieval. It may be advantageous for a group of autonomous robots to work together to reduce inspection times and also for the robot to have an ability to transmit collected data in real-time (or near real-time) to an external system.
Embodiments were conceived in light of the above-mentioned problems and limitations, among other things.